Farm groups do a little campaigning of their own

COLUMBUS – As the U.S. presidential campaign heads into the home stretch, the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation’s political action committee launched a Web site to push farmer turnout at the polls. The site, www.ohioagriculturevotes.org, identifies Farm Bureau’s “farmer-friendly” candidates and current officials, takes a look at hot races and explains platform issues. It also encourages farmers and rural residents to register to vote, volunteer in a campaign or host a “meet and greet” event. Home Grown. On the national level, the heavy hitters in the wheat, corn, cotton, sugar, rice and soybean commodities and the American Farm Bureau created a new consumer education coalition called Home Grown. The program hopes to reach more consumers about today’s farmer. But the public information effort has a decidedly political undertone, as most of the activities are planned in the coming months in and around Washington D.C. “Today’s farmers need existing federal policy,” a group statement said in introducing the new effort Sept. 20. The National Association of Wheat Growers jump-started the program in June 2003, then solicited other agricultural groups to join its effort.

Farm and Dairy Editor Susan Crowell has been with the paper since 1985, serving as its editor since 1989. Raised on a farm in Holmes County, she is a graduate of Kent State University.You can follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/scrowell and follow Farm and Dairy at http://twitter.com/farmanddairy. You can also find her on Facebook.